This is a translation of Strzemilcze from Sefer zikaron le-kehilot Radikhov; Memorial book of Radikhov,
ed. G. Kressel, Tel Aviv, Society of Radikhov, Lopatyn and vicinity, 1976 (H,Y)

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[Page 455]

My Town Strzemilcze

by Menachem Doyer

Translated by Barbara Beaton

In memory of my dear mother, may her soul rest in paradise

I left you in the year 1930, to immigrate to Eretz Israel, but I haven't forgotten you to this day, for this was the town where I was born and spent my childhood years. Indeed, I moved to nearby Berestechko when I was close to 11 years old and I walked between the two towns every day for my studies. However, I still remember you with your approximately 50 families from before the First World War.

In the year 1915, I was a boy of three when we went to Radekhov because of fearfulness of the war, and still today I hold in my heart memories of our journey by foot with all our possessions in hand. We spent about two years in Radekhov and then returned to Stremiltsh. We found several other families and together with the Pardes and Friedman families we spent about a year in an underground hiding place. Horrors of hunger and suffering during the First World War were etched in my memory. Then we learned that the war had ended. This was on Friday, the eve of Shabbat Nachamu [the Sabbath following Tisha B'Av] in the year 1918. We then decided to go out into the open. We decided to stay with Stotzky -- and there in the morning, the Russians began shooting. We all exited crawling, but mother couldn't do this because she was holding my eight-month-old brother – and she was killed. We were left as five orphans.

My town Stremiltsh – many sad memories remain with me to this day. The greatest sorrow is for the fate of the dear Jews and the families that were murdered at the hands of the Nazi enemy and the Ukrainians. There is neither comfort nor condolences.

With trembling and holiness, we the survivors of the town Stremiltsh, weep and recite kaddish for the memory of our parents, our brothers, our sisters, our children and all the martyrs of the town. These people I recall, and for them I weep, beloved and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not separated. They were martyrs from Stremiltsh, who gave their lives in sanctification of the Divine Name and were killed and slaughtered by the Nazis and their collaborators the Ukrainians, may their names be blotted out, whose fate was like that of the martyrs of all generations, and their graves are unknown.

This material is made available by JewishGen, Inc.
and the Yizkor Book Project for the purpose of fulfilling our
mission of disseminating information about the Holocaust and
destroyed Jewish communities. This material may not be copied,
sold or bartered without JewishGen, Inc.'s permission. Rights may be
reserved by the copyright holder.

JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of
the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material
for verification. JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.